For our upstate NY friends, check out this fab holiday market - local artisans for all your holiday "needs." Brooklyn ain't the only game in town!

And be sure to check out friend and fellow t-shirt maven (and accessories and more...) designer Alison Tauber .

Oh sure they met first with sneers when placed right next to each other more than once at some markets. "egads, not another t-shirt gal right next to me!"
Ah but that didn't last long - The Miss and Tauber are too swell for such pettiness!

A few years back, whilst still in graduate school for social work - the miss went on a group bus trip to Washington DC for the March for Women's Lives. It was one of those 6am on the bus kind of deals. The Miss's co-intern organized the bus, and the Miss even stayed up all night helping another friend who was the caterer, make sandwiches.

Finally on the bus she finds her self sitting next to a woman who she kinda sorta does not really know from school. It's a blur now, that line between that untimeable time when people move from strangers to friends. Anyhoo - they start to chattin' as a gaggle of social work folks on a bus for 5 hours are want to do! "Oh what did you do before grad school?" that kind of a thing. And so the ping pong match of coincidental "you toos" ensues.

You worked in film? I worked in film. You took a class before starting the program? I took a class before starting a program. You like sarcasm? Wait a minute! Wait you make t-shirts? Ha, I used to make t-shirts. Wait, the name of your line is "Miss Wit?" Wait a frickin' minute, my line was called "Miss Shanghai"

Next thing ya know it's raining Misses'

Needless to say the parallels just had to keep them together as friends!! And so it is with great joy - in the vain of "bringing 'olde' good things back to life" that Miss Wit has been graced with the pleasure to bring back MIss Shanghai in freakin' cute kiddie form!

LIterally hot off the heat presses. Gorgeously printed old school heat transfers, dug up from the Brooklyn closets of Miss Shanghai herself - and hot pressed by the Miss W - we introduce these insanely vibrantly colored Chinese imagery inspired, onesies. Miss Wit would give almost anything to be able to wear one!! Bring out yer babies!

Dan Goldstein, Freddy's Bar and other homeowners and residents lost their big eminent domain case. They'd gone to court to stop Bruce Ratner and the state's development agency, the ESDC, from taking their homes, businesses and properties so that Ratner can build the vile Atlantic Yards colossus.

By a 6-1 decision, the court washed its hands of the matter, saying it couldn't get involved in the affairs of a state agency. By that logic, they would refuse to order election commissions to let Black people vote, marriage license departments to allow mixed-race marriages, and school districts to integrate.

More to the point, if the Court of Appeals were King Solomon, it would've gone like this: "Hmmm...okay. Each of you chicks says you're the momma to this baby. Okay, first, I dunno if I'm the right guy to decide this. Second...hmmm....okay, you know what? I can't really get involved. Get out of my palace."

The one dissenting judge, Robert Smith, had harsh words for his colleagues on the bench:

[T]he majority is much too deferential to the self-serving determination by Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) that petitioners live in a "blighted" area, and are accordingly subject to having their homes seized and turned over to a private developer.

...It is clear to me from the record that the elimination of blight, in the sense of substandard and unsanitary conditions that present a danger to public safety, was never the bona fide purpose of the development at issue in this case.

Another battle lost, but is the war over? Not by a long shot. Ratner has to sell $700 million in bonds by the end of the year, and there are at least four lawsuits -- and possibly more -- between him and getting the project started. All of the grandiose affordable-housing and new-jobs promises are now distant echoes, having fulfilled their one raison d'etre -- to flim-flam elected officials and people desperate for housing and work -- to support the project. It's the same model as Ratner's hitting the eject button on the Nets basketball team -- it too having fulfilled its role as a feel-good nostalgia seduction.

Oh...and that basketball team of his is now 0-14.

Besides the immediacy of the court decision, what does this have to do with the giving of thanks?

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, that's what.

The group came together not long after Ratner's plans were announced in late 2003. The first DDDB event was a rally on Pacific Street, in front of Goldstein's building at what would be center court of the Nets' arena -- or rather, Barclays' arena, named for a bank involved with the slave trade, apartheid, Nazi occupation in France, the Congolese civil war and Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe. Just what Brooklyn needs.

From there, DDDB has done everything it can to stop Ratner's arrogance, architect Frank Gehry's self-absorbed dismissiveness, Mayor Bloomberg's bullying, Boro Prez Markowitz's childish cartoon pronouncements, Governors Pataki's/Spitzer's/Paterson's embrace of neighborhood decimation, and the state's wanton disregard for anyone who would question what their government is up to.

DDDB's primary goal is not to stop the Atlantic Yards. Rather, it's to develop the Vanderbilt Railyards with truly affordable housing...in scale with the neighborhood...emphasizing small businesses and not Ratner's model of big box-stores...with open-to-all public spaces...no eminent domain...none of the public money Ratner wants for his private for-profit arena and skyscrapers...truly green...and without wielding the dagger Ratner has plunged into Brooklyn's heart these last six years.

DDDB is not without its faults. To wage a political struggle faultlessly is Stepford to the core. That, and it never having happened in the history of humankind. Political strugglers make mistakes.

DDDB, though, has done done a good job because we haven't sunk to Ratner's and Bloomberg's level. We don't lie. We don't make things up. We don't play dirty tricks. We don't rip people off. We don't set fire to the dry tinder that is Brooklyn's racial and class divisions. We don't embrace the language of condescension.

Instead, we've always tried hard and played fair. We might not win. Brooklyn might not win. Perhaps, if we lose, some will say that DDDB should've played hardball.

See, it's that kind of macho crap that's gotten us into this mess in the first place. It gets us into messes all over the world. Machiavellian principles have ruined too many lives, burned too many cities to the ground, and soured the enzymes that give us life.

I've grown to love the people I work with at DDDB. It's the best campaign I've ever been a part of, and I've worked on "causes" since the early '80s. If a struggle loses sight of the humanity of the cause, it will fail. Even if, on paper, it wins. Ratner, Bloomberg, Markowitz and the others had no use for treating people kindly, right from the outset.

The abandonment of kindness isn't limited to the Ratner's key consortium players. A lot of good people in the Atlantic Yards conflagration can't tell night from day. A man like Michael Ratner, Bruce's brother, the radical progressive lawyer whose career has been about fighting the power, has lost his humanity. He has ethical blood on his hands for assisting his brother's taking of peoples homes and lives for the Atlantic Yards boondoggle. The Atlantic Yards' malfeasance is the kind he'd be in court battling against -- racism, classism, government playing rough with its populace. Yet Michael Ratner has been silent about in his own family's terrible behavior. Cross Michael Ratner off the list of good guys.

["But Michael Ratner's done such good!" you might respond. Sure, but but Justice is a 24/7 thing, and you can't be selective about it -- especially if it means your working dynamic becomes blood is thicker than ethics.]

David Sheets and Daniel Goldstein, two of the plaintiffs in Goldstein, et al. v. New York State Urban Development Corporation. Photo by Tracy Collins

DDDB and all the others groups and citizens fighting the Ratner development have a long way to go. That's because of the width and breadth of the issue -- overdevelopment and the very notion of who gets a say in their community's progress.

If Ratner is successful, it's an ominous moment at the end of the new century's first decade. At this juncture, communities, individuals, working-class people, people of color, immigrants and the wide range of traditionally-screwed groups should be gaining empowerment -- not drunk-on-power despots like Michael Bloomberg and wealthy scions like Bruce Ratner.

It just means, as always, that people need to come together and put an end to this bass-ackwards way of life.

This Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for the friends I've made in DDDB -- none of whom I knew before Ratner pushed his way into our lives uninvited six years ago. They're good people. Really good people, who know the difference between fighting and cheating. There's not a Thierry Henry in sight on this side of the Atlantic Yards struggle.

It could be our downfall, but this much is clear: if you win by walking all over people, it's no win at all. I'm thankful that, whenever this thing finally ends, we'll still be standing, hearts still beating, without carnage strewn about. Not carnage of our making, anyway.

I think we'll win, by the way.

It sounds like a grim way to say "Happy Thanksgiving." It's not. It's a celebration of people fighting for what they believe, and having each others' backs. It's not always pretty, but in the end, it's affection and tenderness stating for the record that, without them, struggle is an empty call.

Eat up that turkey and you know the drill, on to the next! Shopping! While we at Miss Wit lament the loss of Tower Records (we still listen to cassettes, and vinyl, sniff sniff) be sure to check out the temporary market in it's place - Gifted - the Manhattan Holiday extension of the Brooklyn Flea, 50 vendors, limitless gifts for all, including yourself!

Miss Wit will be there Dec Wed 9 to Dec Sunday 13th. Get your list ready and come by.

Ali.com hosts replay of final round and special "Rumblevision" animated shorts from No Mas

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ --"The Rumble in the Jungle," was more than just a boxing match.

The epic 1974 battle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire's jungle heat was one of the most anticipated championship fights of all time. Younger than Ali and the reigning heavyweight champ, Foreman was the heavy favorite. Yet Ali's surprising "rope-a-dope" strategy provided him a stunning upset victory over the then indomitable Foreman.

But beyond the remarkable athleticism and cunning gamesmanship that Ali displayed, it was the personal rapport he developed with his African and international fan base that helped establish him as a unique global icon.

Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC and the official Muhammad Ali website, www.Ali.com, are celebrating the 35th anniversary of "The Rumble in the Jungle" - October 30, 1974 - with a series of special online events.

On October 30, 2009, Ali.com will display the 8th and final round of the epic fight. Rounds 1 through 7 have been displayed one at a time on each day since Oct. 22. Other web features designed to immerse Ali's international fan base in this historic event include fan polls, interactive messaging to The Champ, exclusive video and photos, gifts, and the online offering of specially designed commemorative merchandise.

In association with the 35th Anniversary, Ali.com, the home of Muhammad Ali's Official Online Store, presents several exclusive offerings, specially designed and manufactured to commemorate the epic battle.

A colorful poster, designed to match the style and feeling of the African bout in 1974, is on sale as a Limited Edition print. Five specially designed Rumble t-shirts, with dynamic images of the Champ in action, are offered in a variety of colors and sizes. A framed 20x24 Rumble in the Jungle autographed print can be purchased, delivered with the Ali.com/Online Authentics guaranteed Certificate of Authenticity.

In addition to this, Muhammad Ali Enterprises has commissioned No Mas, a New York-based apparel and media company, to create "Rumblevison," a series of three original, animated short films.

The animations celebrating Ali's spectacular victory over Foreman will go live on Friday, October 30, on both the No Mas (www.nomas-nyc.com) and Ali (www.ali.com) websites and will be made widely available for embed and viewing on viral on mobile video players. In conjunction with a viral release, No Mas will also retail the original artwork, editioned prints and t-shirts based on key frames, along with its current collection of licensed reproductions of t-shirts worn by Ali during his storied career.

To explore this legendary fight, No Mas founder and sport culture guru Chris Isenberg tapped three fine artists with distinct styles to offer different perspectives on the "Rumble in The Jungle."

The greatest sportsman of his time, Ali's contributions transcend sports. Ali is that rare personality who has inspired and continues to inspire people around the world, no matter what their age, ethnicity, or beliefs. He is esteemed as a great humanitarian and social activist, recognized in every corner of the globe. Awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and appointed as United Nations Messenger of Peace, Ali remains active today, sponsoring charity benefits and making appearances for various causes.

About Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC

Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC ("MAE") is a California limited liability company. MAE is aggressively involved in a worldwide licensing program, merchandising, television, film, video and Internet projects. For more information on MAE, visit www.Ali.com. MAE is a subsidiary of CKX, Inc., a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market® under the ticker symbol "CKXE." Also visit www.ckx.com.

Miss Wit has recently teamed up with creative pop genius (no no he says) Dan Meth illustrator, cartoonist, viral web video savant, and all around good human.

In what the Miss hopes to be the beginning of a fruitful pairing - we were most pleased to release the following two tees right out of the gate - at theannual WFMU Record Fair in NYC. A phenomenon that brings collectors and dealers from across the country all to one fine location, to do the "crate n finger flip."

Dan's designs were greeted with screeches of joy and laughter, and definitely lots of pointing, cries of "genius, subversive, subtle!"

It's not that the Heene family failed so miserably in the parents' shot at fame. Truth be told, they won that battle. Maybe it's Andy Warhol's consummate "fifteen minutes of fame." Or maybe it's just that our little club called "society" can never, ever get enough of this stuff.

Look at me! I'm writing about it.

Look at you! You're reading my writing about it.

Face it -- seeing this thing flying through the northern Colorado sky last week was just plain weird. And kinda awesome, to boot.

I saw it on live t.v. and thought "good grief, the aliens have arrived, and they're driving an intergalactic Pinto." Then, the breathless newspeople said there was a young boy aboard this thing, and it got ookie and creepy.

Finally, after two hours of helicopter coverage and interviews with the Heenes' neighbor, the balloon landed, and wasn't that a sight -- a uniformed officer (whose uniform, sadly, was a polo shirt -- I'll be sure to respect that when the grid goes down) lunging for the guide wires we were told had given way and put the poor boy in danger. The ground beneath them looked like the American farmland melded with a Japanese garden.

a new Olympic demonstration sport, slated for the London Games of 2012

Then, the huh?-ness of rescuers not feverishly ripping the hatch off the balloon to save the boy. Just standing around and by-golly not doing much of anything.

"THE BOY'S NOT ON BOARD!" As though a contraption like this could have a board to be on. Because newscasters will tell you -- probably at the next panel discussion at the Museum of Television and Radio -- that they just had to bring it up ("it was germane," Anderson Cooper will probably say). Bring what up?

"HAS THE BOY FALL TO HIS DEATH SOMEWHERE ABOVE NORTHERN COLORADO?!!" This followed theories that the balloon COULD COLLIDE WITH JETS OVER DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT or that the balloon was HEADED STRAIGHT FOR DOWNTOWN DENVER!

Except for the part where it wasn't. "THERE ARE BUILDINGS IN DENVER THAT ARE VERY TALL! WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THIS AIRCRAFT STRUCK ONE OF THOSE BUILDINGS IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORKDAY?!!"

You mean, this aircraft?

and to think, the feds forgot to raise the Alert Level to...uh, what, silver?!

I dunno...it'd probably make us all forget 9/11 ever happened.

The rest of the story you know. Boy not aboard. Boy not fallen to his death. Boy "hiding in the attic." Boy claiming to be scared of letting daddy's balloon get away. Boy spilling beans to Wolf Blitzer that it was "for the show." Father acting indignant at suggestions that this could be a hoax. Mother alternating 'tween teary and wacky. Media irretrievably stuck to the story like an accident at the Elmer's Glue factory.

Now, it's Hoaxville for sure, and boy, are do the authorities have the Heenes in their sights.

I don't much care that it was a hoax. Sure, the parents, and the father in particular, are strung-out hi-test Grade A fame junkies. They also have the disturbing habit of plopping their kids in the backseat when they go driving straight at tornadoes. If I were Falcon Heene, the boy with the perfect-for-television name, I'd be counting the days 'til I was old enough to kick Dad square in the weather balloons.

Falcon Heene: "Boy, do I know something you wanna know..."

Hoax or not, American t.v. media sure does love jumping up and down, clapping its hands in over-excited glee, and unleashing an oddly blended concoction of well-worn and heavily rehearsed clichés, stuttering lack of comprehension, and queries for people in the field who haven't any clue what's transpiring than the well-coiffed behind the studio desks.

One network brought on an "expert" -- someone who pilots hot-air balloons. Since the Balloon Boy balloon was a pilotless contraption filled with helium, the expert was reduced to answering most questions with well, I fly hot-air balloons, and this isn't one of those, so I can't say. But if I had to guess...

After a while, there was no story left in the story. That didn't stop the news networks from bleeding what they could out of Balloon Boy.

There have been other hoaxes. Clifford Irving's Howard Hughes autobiography. The Piltdown Man. Affordable housing and jobs at the Atlantic Yards project. Butnot the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is real, man!

Which of these things is real? Hint -- it's not the one in the color picture.

As a rule, we like hoaxes. The best part is that they often make us believe harder. We're all Fox Mulder -- we all want to believe. Because we're ready to believe a hoax, even root for it, it means we're more than ready for when it's the real thing.

There's no surprise in any of this. There's certainly no surprise in me getting all huffy about it, either. It'd just be nice, just once, for the sky to really, truly be falling when folks on live breaking-news t.v. tell us it is.

Next thing you know, they'll be going on and on that some basketball arena is getting built in the middle of Brooklyn.

Yeah, right...

* * * * * * * *

Thanks to everyone who turned out for the big Spunk Lads gig at Freddy's this past Friday. It was, as per usual and par excellence, a real 'loo wrecker. Bigger thanks to everyone who supported Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's annual Walkathon this past Saturday. Your donations and emotional support are appreciated beyond words.

Thank you.

* * * * * * * *

This week's Rocky Sullivan's Pub Quiz is a General Knowledge Night. If it's happened, is happening or will happen, it could be part of this week's Quiz.

Our Guest Round mastermind will be the always intriguing, always NYC-centric and always buoyant Morgan Doninger, the brains behindPuzzling New York, the city's best quiz website dedicated to the endless wonderments of the City of New York.

Not just Quizzy goodness. Not just Morgan Donanger. Not just Puzzling New York. Not just good drinking, good eats, good company and gambolic revelry.

No...there's also this:

Seven rounds of quizzy goodness in the realms of culture, music and imagery. But there's so much more!

Rocky Sullivan's Pub Quiz SuperMix Compilation CD -- answer a super-tough question and win a mix CD of full versions of all the songs in this week's Music Round;

Special prizes from the Quizmaster's Magic Bag Of Stuff You Can Live Without But Why Would You?

Grand Prize -- a thirst-slaking round for everyone on the winning team.

DON'T FORGET: As is custom, somewhere in this e-mail is a clue for this week's Pre-Quiz Bonus Question. Get it right and your team earns five points before the Quiz has started.

Gird, my friends, gird. It's about to be Halloween. Then the really cold weather, the holiday season, and the mad rush toward 2010. Best way to gird for gold? Come down to tomorrow's Rocky Sullivan's Pub Quiz.

You know it. You're living just enough, just enough for the citeeeeee.

Sure the Lion King is woonderful! And who wouldn't love to see a musical version of Catch Me if You Can?

That's if you can catch a ten pound bag o' money to afford the tickets!

But down in the East Village, Affordable and Awesome NYC theater percolates and brews, on East 4th Street!

This week's FAB Tix are on sale Thursday, October 22 andFriday, October 23 from 1-6PM.Stop by for these awesome 2for1 ticket deals! TWO FOR ONE

But don't take our words for it, take the visual for it! The new wave in "commercials!"

The East 4th Street Cultural District is only one block long, yet it encompasses 12 theaters, 8 dance/rehearsal studios, 3 film editing suites, and a large screening room. In the next 2 years, an estimated 40,000 sq. feet of vacant space will be transformed into active cultural use; in 10 years, cultural space on the block will exceed 145,000 sq. feet – a powerful legacy in a city where affordable space for artists is an increasingly rare commodity.

You've heard the names, you know the score.

And now FAB is offering 2 for 1, we repeat 2 for 1 for tickets for some of the hottest shows on the block!

***Shirt of The Week***

BE HER FAN!!! You Know Facebook!

About Miss Wit

Miss Wit is a collaboration of time and space, years of finely tuned humor, designers, wit makers, doers and dreamers.

Miss Wit is tragic, sinful, cynical, sarcastic FUN.
She an HONEST ENGINE, she is HOMEGROWN, HOMEMADE, PIG HEADED and HUMBLED PIE. Sure, MissWit gets down, that is why she needs you, MissWit needs you!!! Calling all yous! But, rest assured — MissWit will be there for you, if you just let her dare!